Maine city allocates over $900K donations to asylum seekers

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – The Portland City Council in Maine will allocate over $ 900,000 in private donations to the more than 400 asylum seekers that arrived this summer.

The council voted unanimously on Wednesday to accept the donations and put the money into the city’s Health and Human Services budget to use it for sheltering and basic needs for migrant families. They arrived primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

The Portland Press Herald reports the city was informed in June by Texas officials that large groups of African migrant families had crossed the U.S. southern border and were headed to Portland.

City Manager Jon Jennings had declared an emergency and opened a shelter at the Portland Expo.